STATE COLLEGE -- Deciding whether to redshirt a player, much like the recruiting process that brings true freshmen to any college campus, is an inexact science.

Last fall, Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien said he and his staff hoped to make a decision on which players would redshirt and which would play in their first year of eligibility by the fourth game of the season. This year, the plan was much of the same.

Through eight games this fall, the only scholarship players who can no longer redshirt this fall because they played a snap are quarterback Christian Hackenberg, linebacker Brandon Bell, running back Richy Anderson, tight end Adam Breneman, and cornerbacks Jordan Smith and Anthony Smith (no relation). They still, of course, retain the option to redshirt in future seasons, just not for the 2013 one.

The others, like receiver DaeSean Hamilton, have used the season to recover from bumps and bruises (he came to Penn State with a wrist injury that required surgery), while others have used their first season with the Lions to add the weight necessary to play Division-I football.

And then, in cases like the one of Hershey High product and offensive tackle Andrew Nelson, they are ready to play immediately. But that doesn't mean it hurts to take a year off to adjust to college life and the rigors of college football.

That's what Nelson, and a few others, have been doing this fall, despite being ready to enter at a moments notice.

"If you look at the offensive line, do we need Andrew Nelson to play for us this year? No, because we have decent players there that we really believe in and hopefully we can keep him where he can redâshirt and have four years to play as opposed to Brandon Bell," O'Brien explained, referring to the linebacker.

"Brandon Bell is a guy that is a freshman linebacker that we felt had improved and we started using him on special teams. Had a great tackle and a punt last week and has played a little bit on defense."

Unlike Nelson, who is able to watch while line coach Mac McWhorter rotates a boat load of linemen in-and-out each Saturday, Bell was forced right into action with linebacker coach Ron Vanderlinden's unit suffering from injuries early in the season.

The New Jersey native has performed fine in spot duty, making eight tackles in five games, some of which have come on special teams. He's joined there by a host of walk-on players, who also didn't have the luxury their classmates did to redshirt.

It relates directly back to the NCAA sanctions, and what Penn State can't do that other programs can. Because of depth issues, starters and oft-used back-ups are held out of special teams work, and someone has to fill the void.

In an ideal world, O'Brien would like to redshirt all his freshman, and it's easy to see why. Despite a campaign that could earn him freshman of the year honors come December, Hackenberg could certainly have used a year to learn the head coach's vast playbook, as could Bell in Butler's system.

They couldn't, but some can. In the end, it comes down to position needs, as it will for a couple more years until State is caught up scholarship wise.

Ideally you'd like to redâshirt everybody. I think it's very difficult to play as a true freshman when you're trying to figure out your class schedule and all the different things that go on your freshman year," O'Brien said. "Now, with the situation that we're in right now, that's really impossible to do. So what we do is more of a caseâbyâcase, positionâbyâposition.

"Ideally you'd love to have everybody for five years, but that's almost impossible to do."